police district tonight, three men and one woman shot here at the marketplace convenience store at a bp gas station on benning road and 44th street. the victims, two men and a woman. one of the men an employee of the store, police say none of the victims sustained life threatening injuries. the shooter is still at large. he raced away from the scene driving a black mercedes extremely fast, raced around the corner on blaine street where he smashed into a dodge caravan that was stopped at blaine and 49th street. his car spun out of control, crashed into two other cars. the driver was then seen getting out of his car and running into an alley. >> what we know is that it orange natured from a customer dispute. we -- originated from a customer dispute. we have no information at this time to believe robbery was the motive, but we do know there was a minor customer dispute. >> just saw the car flying down

here it. made impact with the curb and the mercedes hit the pontiac here and it swirled into the infiniti there and that's when it stopped. >> reporter: back out here live, the search still on for the shooter. this area is swarming with police cars tonight. police say that the dispute was over slow service. brian, back into you. just around the corner from that scene police are looking for a group of men who may be connected to a series of robberies and rapes. it started this weekend when two women were grabbed off the street and sexually assaulted near capitol heights metro stop. there have been several other sexual assaults and robberies reported in the same area since then. police have not released a suspect description. the man accused of being the east coast rapist was expected to plead guilty in a manassas courtroom today. he suddenly changed his mind and signed a plea deal days ago after prosecutors agreed to drop gun charges against him. fox 5's paul wagner has the story of why it fell through.

>> i'm not surprised that he did not enter a belief guilty because he's beener rat nick his behavior from the -- been erratic from the start. >> reporter: court records show aaron thomas mutilated himself while in custody and for a time refused to cooperate with his attorneys and pursued an insanity defense that was dropped october 25th. >> to make the victims relive what happened to them back in halloween of '09, it looks like at this juncture that's not going to be in the cards. >> reporter: days ago thomas agreed in writing to admit his involvement in the rapes of two teen-age girls in a wooded area behind a dale city shopping mall on halloween. paul ebert says dna linked thomas to 17 rapes in four states. thomas was arrested in march last year after authorities launched an aggressive media campaign with a website and billboards. someone thought thomas fit the

rapist's profile and called police. dna confirmed the tip. >> if he changes his mind, the court may very well accept a plea in the future, but absent that we'll be going to trial irrespective of his wishes on january 14th. >> reporter: thomas faces up to life in prison if convicted. his attorney declined to comment. t. court records show aaron thomas is scheduled for a plea hearing in a loudoun county courtroom november 30th for a rape that occurred in leesburg in 2001. so far that date has not been changed. in the fox 5 newsroom, i'm wag ago. the top american commander in afghanistan -- i'm paul wagner. the top american commander in afghanistan now under investigation for allegedly having inappropriate relations with a woman at the top of the general petraeus scandal. >> now a second top u.s. general is involved, a man on track to becoming the next supreme allied commander of nato forces in europe.

let me catch you up tonight. jill kelley is the tampa socialite who was an unpaid social liaison with the air force base in tampa. she contacted the fbi about so- called threatening e-mails. that led them to paula broadwell right there, the david petraeus biographer. the fbi discover general petraeus who was director of the cia had an affair with broadwell, so he resigned last week. now enter another four star general, john allen, who is the commander in afghanistan. he's being investigated for what may be inappropriate e- mails with jill kelley, that tampa woman who triggered the whole investigation in the first place. now they deny any wrongdoing. they're both married to other people, but because general allen is being investigated his nomination to become the next supreme allied commander is on hold. >> if the findings are that he's done nothing wrong, they it will be up to the secretary and president to move forward with the nomination. >> now we'll take a closer look

at that tampa socialite, jill kelley. remember she alerted the fbi to so-called threatening e-mails from general petraeus' mistress. here's fox's gloria gomez with who is kelley. >> reporter: jill kelley was known as an extravagant south tampa most he is with an impressive military -- hostess with an impressive military guest list, married to dr. scott kelley, a inent bay area surgeon. the power couple rubbed elbows with the top of the top military brass including general david petraeus and his wife holly. now it has emerged she had frequent contact with another four star general, john allen, the general in charge of the afghanistan war. the a.p. reports some of the e-mails were flirtatious. before afghanistan general allen was deputy commander at dill air force base. sources say jill was a frequent visitor to mcdill. while she didn't have an official role at the base, a military spokesperson says she volunteered for a military

supporter and would often arrange tours for foreign visitors and prepare care packages for soldiers. now the bay area socialite finds herself in the middle of an ever growing scandal. kelley just hired washington power attorney abbey lowe whose clients have included president bill clinton and former presidential candidate john edwards. she also hired judy smith, the head of a pr crisis firm who has represented big names like kobe bryant and michael vick and monica lewinsky. >> when you bring on these type of professionals, it doesn't necessarily mean you've done anything wrong, but it usually means you have been involved in something that's quite interesting. >> reporter: karen post, a branding expert and author of brand turnaround says these latest hires is a big red flag to her. she believes there are more twists and turns to come. >> it's got a cast of characters, a furious surprised wife of the general. it's got a book author. it's got a shirtless fbi agent.

i mean it's got all the makings of a great story. >> reporter: post says the kelleys find themselves in the media vortex that could have the power couple cashing in on their instant celebrity. >> this story, i suspect, is going to go on quite some time and i would not be surprised if there was not a book about it, a movie about it and lots and lots of news coverage. >> gloria gomez reporting for us. one more note about general petraeus. since he's resigned the acting cia director will testify in his place this thursday about the deadly benghazi attack. congress wants to know who knew what and when. breaking news from mississippi, three people are dead after a small plane crashed into a home in jackson. the plane had engine trouble shortly after taking off from the airport. the three victims were passengers. one person escaped from the home. developing tonight americans from states across the country are threatening to

secede from the union. thousands have signed a petition on the white house website. fox's casey steigel explains why they want to go it alone. >> reporter: the last time a bunch -- >> the last time a bunch of stupid hicks did this was before civil war. this is bad. there is no good precedent to this. eventually they will shut up and sit down and show up again the next election. thousands of citizens in the lone star state want the obama administration to go it alone. >> let's just move the whole state to australia. >> reporter: texas governor rick perry raised the idea in 2009. he's since made clear he has no interest in it and does not support these petitions. texans have company in this idea as americans in more than 30 states are floating the plan on the white house website. >> i thought the civil war was over a couple hundred years ago almost, but i mean i'm not surprised. we're kind of individualistic here. >> reporter: oregon's petition has more than 10,000 signatures. so what's really motivating folks who want to opt out of

america? >> it would be interesting to find out what they think the benefit would be. >> reporter: once any petition reaches 25,000 signatures in 30 days' time, it mandates a response from the obama administration, but the bottom line is this might be a good way for americans to air their frustrations, but the petitions carry no legal weight. >> it's not in the president's power under the constitution to let a state secede. in fact, it's not clear whether anyone, that is, even congress could let a statsecede. it might, in fact, take a constitutional amendment. >> reporter: petitions from louisiana and texas are reaching a threshold for a response. they were the first two states represented followed by alabama. you can see these petitions for yourself online at white house.gov. in dallas casey steigel, fox news. the countdown to the holidays is on. coming up we have a traffic prediction for thanksgiving weekend.

>> and a weather forecast soon to follow, but in the short term we've got to get ready for a real cold night and a chilly start on wednesday. i'll have the rest of the forecast coming up. >> check out some of the stories on the rundown. we're back. ♪ ♪ we're lucky, it's not every day you find a companion

as loyal as a subaru. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru.

chick-fil-a remains the most popular fast food chicken chain voted no. 1 by consumers raising cane and boston market coming in second and third. >> may be a lot easier to get a cholesterol test and a major road project finally open. shawn yancy has your fox 5 top five. >> up first tonight how are your cholesterol levels? no. 5, cholesterol tests could soon be more tolerable for adults. currently people are supposed to fast up to 12 hours prior to the tests. a new study shows fasting may not be necessary and eating before the test had little impact on the overall results. no. 4, fewer women in the u.s. are giving birth to premature babies. a new report from the march of dimes shows the rate of premature births fell by nearly 12% last year to its lowest level in nearly a decade, but nearly a half million babies are stillborn prematurely each year. no. 3, metro is taking online

orders for its commemorative 2013 inaugural smartrip cards. they will bear a picture of the president and be preloaded with the one day pass. you can use it as a flash pass for unlimited travel on inauguration day. each card costs $15 is reloadable. no. 2. you'll be in good company traveling to grandma's house on thanksgiving. 46.3million people are predicted to travel at least 50 miles and more of them are driving this year. aaa says the drop in gas prices may encourage more people to drive. no. 1 tonight, the capital beltway express lanes in northern virginia will open up this saturday. the lanes stretch 14 miles each direction. you have to have at least three people in a car or pay a toll. the lanes are part of a $2 billion public/private partnership and, brian, that's tonight's fox 5 top five. the statue of liberty and lib are the island will remain closed until further -- liberty island will remain closed until

further notice. the national park service is examining the infrastructure. the statue of liberty just reopened in october after $30 million in renovation. >> it's almost like when we had the earthquake here, we kept finding more and more damage as time went on. >> washington monument still shut down. we are in for a cold snap here. >> definitely a cold night and chilly days, below average. get ready for that in the morning and yeah, in contrast to last night when it was still in the 60s our high for the day actually was shortly after midnight. it still goes down in the 60s, but wow, we are way down now and rain is long gone, good thing, too. because it wouldn't be liquid variety if it were coming into this cold air tonight. we have clear skies now. you can see the last of the rain showers moving from the coast and we will continue to watch clear skies overnight, a little cloud cover up through pennsylvania, some of that singing closer to those of you in hagerstown, but high

pressure will be in and rule the roost. in fact, there it is. in that position we get still the north flow, although now that it's closer to us the winds have lightened up and the frontal boundary that came through last night bringing in the chillier air and all the showers. that is now out of here. so high pressure tomorrow means beautiful sunny skies and i think you'll see sun from sun- up to sundown, not much cloud cover. this will do a good job suppressing it. might have a bit more cloud cover thursday, temperature jumping up about 2 degrees. so that is how the next two days are looking, pretty settled all thing considered in the mid-atlantic. we turn our attention to the bigger story. that is the fact it's pretty chilly tonight, big contrast in the city 40 to 30 up toward gaithersburg and frederick. we're down to 35 in martinsburg, winchester 32. so definitely a clear night, winds lightened up a lot, very

dry air, clear skies, good radiational cooling. we find a lot of 20s through the northern great lakes, detroit at 29 degrees, columbus 29, binghamton 32, new york city 41 degrees. we'll call it cold tonight, 28 degrees for hagerstown and frederick, baltimore around 32 degrees, d.c. 35. head down to quantico for a temperature of 30 and you can see out toward winchester 28 degrees. so coal overnight expected freezing and be -- cold overnight expected freezing and below in the suburbs, about 35 degrees in the district with lighter winds out of north at 5 to 10 miles per hour. we'll keep that going tomorrow, our temperature 50 degrees. so a cool day with the average being in the upper 50s now but definitely wall to wall sunshine. at 8 a.m. 38 deges with lots of sun. by noon about 47 degrees and again expecting a good amount of sunshine and by 4:00 about 48 degrees. we stay quiet in the short term. as we check temperatures around

the region tomorrow, again it looks like some of you will only be in the low and mid-40s, cumberland only 43 according to our model guidance, winchester, martinsburg and hagerstown 45. you get in closer and it's most likely upper 40s to the closer in suburbs to 50, one of the warmer spots in d.c. with the sun and lack of wind it should feel pretty good. it will probably be later this week we have a chance for rain. high pressure will rule the roost, cool conditions with sunshine. on thursday we see the high pushing north and east. that will allow a little coastal area of low pressure to get closer. i don't expect the rain to get in here in the thursday/friday time period. i think it will move out and probably bring us some clouds. we'll probably see something late in the week in a sunday/monday time frame. here on our fox 5 accuweather seven-day forecast, lots of temperatures at or a bit above 50. we increase the clouds for the weekend and into the saturday/sunday time frame.

that's when we expect to see some showers with a temperature of 50 for sunday, monday about 50 degrees with a few showers and tuesday fust 3 degrees with lots of sunshine. so not exactly baseball weather, but you know what? those nats are still making news. scott smith will tell you more. here's his sports report. this is the verizon 4g lte sports desk with scott smith. >> after a decade out of the manager's seat it didn't take long for davey johnson to get back in the groove, his first full season with the nats one for the record books. to top it all off, he claimed a little hardware tonight. in a landslide vote johnson was named manager of the year. he claimed 23 of the 32 first place votes topping cincinnati's dusty baker and san francisco's bruce bochy and becomes just the fifth manager to win the award in both leagues. he won it with the orioles in 1997. with the way this team is set up he may be back in this position a year from now.

>> this award is really nice, but i like more to the organizational award because the lerner family has done a great job, rizzo and staff. we've had great drafts. young players this year really stepped in when key players got hurt like werth and michael morse and storen went down and my catcher went down. we had a lot of young catchers come up and everybody really produced and it was just a remarkable year. >> early during last year's abysmal season the wizards could count on charlotte. four of their 20 wins came against the lowly bobcats. so it was with a deep sigh of relief when the winless wizards looked down on the schedule tonight and saw those friendly felines. last year feels so long ago, the cats the better team tonight. strong 1st quarter, trevor ariza hit two three's in the frame, wiz up seven. ariza led the team with 19, but they shot 313's and made just

five. that is awful. -- 31 three's and made just five. that is awful. randy wittman in for a long 9, shot 29% from the field, 17 turnovers. ramon sessions going to get the rock and an easy lay-in here, a high 21 points, still winless through six games, 92-76 the final. the only guy feeling worse, a member of the warriors. the bad basketball continues, tony bennett and virginia hosting delaware in the second round of the nic tip- off, cavaliers shot 6 of 29 in the 1st half. 2nd half nolte buries the three to give virginia the lead. delaware with an answer, big night for devon sadler. he hits the stepback three pointer and led his team with 15 points. delaware shocks virginia 59-53, the blue hens first win over an acc team in more than 50 years. george mason falls to bucknell on the road 61-56.

it should be crazy to even mention the playoffs, why the struggling nfc east has the redskins thinking crazy thoughts next.

the odds aren't good for the skins. in the current 12 team playoff format only three teams have ever started 3-6 and made the postseason. all three snuck in with wildcard berths. no 3-6 team has won their division. the redskins aren't playing the

odds. they're playing football and think they have a shot and it has everything to do with the state of the division. giants lead the nfc east 6-4 but slid back losing their last two. dallas has the easiest final seven games but is a 4-5. the 3- 6 eagles have lost five straight. it's doubtful the wildcard team will come out of the east. really the skins have the best shot to win the division. they're 2 1/2 games out with seven to play. >> people look at you and say that it's over or you didn't have a chance, but now you look at everybody else and we're all in the same boat. at the end of the day as long as you don't have that mindset as players, you'll be all right. >> we control our own destiny, so to speak. you need a little help somewhere, but if we come out and play and get a couple wins going, you know, we're right in the picture. >> that's sports. brian is back to wrap up the edge right after this.

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but only for a limited time. taking the edge off with a new word for your vocabulary, omnishambles meaning a situation that's been mismanaged. the word picked by the oxford university press which publishes the oxford dictionary. it was inspired by the british media's meltdown. so it's meant to reflect the

mood of the year. now you have the news edge. see you tomorrow. >> fox 5 news isn't over. go to www.myfoxdc.com now for news, weather and entertainment updates. fox 5 news is washington's best news on air and online at www.myfoxdc.com brought to you by verizon 4g lte.